Historical and statistical soccer stories from all over the world, old and a bit older.

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Dramatic debuts

Since 1872,
when England and Scotland played their first international match (0-0), more
than two hundred countries followed in their footsteps. Some of those national
teams wished they had waited a bit longer, as they were crushed by the
opposition. Here are eight devastating debuts of overall pretty decent national
teams.

18-02-1882 Ireland - England 0-13

When
Ireland planned their first international game back in 1882, they were the
fourth country to do so. Only England, Scotland and Wales (1876) were already playing
matches among each other. Ireland chose England to be their first opponent
ever. Perhaps Wales (one victory and eight defeats until then) would have been
a better choice – although Ireland lost their second international match 1-7
against the Welsh a week later.

Anyway, the
hapless Irish lost 0-13 to England, with the Aston Villa-duo Oliver Vaughton (inside-left)
Arthur Brown (inside-right) causing most of the damage.

20-07-1902 Uruguay – Argentina 0-6

In South
America, soccer was introduced by English and Scottish sailors in the nineteenth
century. After nine years of national league in Argentina and just two in
Uruguay both countries met for the first time in a official game in 1902, in
Montevideo. For both countries it was their first match ever, but Argentina
proved to be superior, winning 6-0. Looking at the line-ups, there was a large influence of Argentina-born Englishmen on the Argentinian side, which surely made their victory easier.

The Argentinian
goals were scored by Juan O. Anderson, Jorge Gibson Brown (one of five brothers
that dominated Argentinian soccer in those days), Edward O. Morgan and Carlos
Edgard Dickinson. Uruguayans Carlos Carve Urioste and Germán Arímalo both scored an own
goal.

12-10-1902 Austria - Hungary 5-0

Soccer in
Austria and Hungary at the start of the twentieth century evolved nearly exclusively
around the capital towns of Vienna and Budapest. It would remain that way for
the next forty or even fifty years. So when both towns decided to play a match against
each other, it was first labeled Vienna against Budapest. In retrospect, it was
more appropriate to upgrade this match to the first international match for
both countries, which happened.

The Austrian
goals were scored by Jan Studnicka (3), Josef Taurer (1) and Gustav Huber (1). Man
of the Match Studnicka celebrated his 19th birthday on this very day.

12-07-1908 Sweden - Norway 11-3

The Swedish team that beat Norway 11-3

Just like Ireland
– who lost 23 of their first 25 matches - maybe Norway in 1908 wasn’t quite ready either, to compete at international level. But when the Swedish FA
sent them an match- invitation, the Norwegian players were very
excited and eagerly accepted. On July 12, 1908, Sweden proved their strength in
their hometown Gothenburg, winning 11-3. On the bright side, Norwegian Norman
Minotti Bøhn was singlehandedly responsible for the best start of a national
team in history. He scored – after dribbling past a few Swedes – the first goal
of the match, after only fifteen seconds! Bøhn scored another goal and so did
Hans Endrerud, to give Norway some confidence in their ability, despite the
double digits at the end. It took Norway until 1918 (27 matches) before they
could finally claim their first victory (3-1 against Denmark).

11-05-1919 Paraguay – Argentina 1-5

In the
early twentieth century, only Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil had decent national
teams in South America. Chili joined play in 1910, but could not win a single
match until 1926. In 1919, Paraguay thought it was time for a national team as
well. They decided to start in a laid-back way, though. While Argentina,
Brasil, Chili and Uruguay were starting to compete at the South American Championship
in Rio de Janeiro, Paraguay invited Argentina for its first official match.
Argentina agreed, but could only send a B-team to play in Asunción. A crowd of 4000
spectators saw an easy 5-1 victory for Argentina. Paraguay then changed the
whole team for the second match, and lost 3-0 four days later. This match only lasted 52
minutes, as extreme rainfall ruined the pitch for further play. On the upside,
this match fielded the first superstar of Paraguayan soccer, Manuel Fleitas
Solich, who later played for Boca Juniors in Argentina and was the most successful
Paraguayan national coach of all time, winning the South America Cup in 1953.

The Argentinian
goals were scored by José Laguna (2), Alberto Enrique Ochandío (2) and Pascual
Polimeni (1). Two years later, Laguna became the first national coach of
Paraguay.

28-08-1920 Czechoslovakia - Yugoslavia 7-0

Competing already at the 1920 Olympics in Belgium the one year old independent state of Yugoslavia
showed what sports-crazy people live there. Nonetheless their performance was
poor, that early morning of July 28th. Goalkeeper Dragutin Vrdjuka kept a clean sheet
for twenty minutes, then adversary Czechoslovakia (also a new country, but with
lots of soccer experience) scored their first goal through centre forward Jan Vanik.
It ended 7-0, with Czechoslovakia later in the tournament winning the silver medal, losing a heated and
disputed final against host Belgium. Yugoslavia lost against Egypt (2-4) in the
consolation round, with captain Artur Dubravcic scoring the first international
goal ever for his country. Three years later, in 1923, the first national
league was disputed in Yugoslavia, slowly improving the standard of play.

28-08-1920 Sweden - Greece 9-0

While Athens,
Smyrna and Thessaloniki (the last two part of the then Ottoman Empire) already
competing at the 1906 unofficial Olympic games in Athens, political turmoil
prevented soccer to evolve. It took until
1920 before Greece played its first real international match. Again, the
Olympics were the stage, and Sweden was the opponent. And it went terribly
wrong. The experienced Swedes – neutral during the First World War – played against
a torn country. The 9-0 victory really was no surprise. After this, Greece stayed away from
the international scene until 1929.

Greece
seems to be a bit reluctant to acknowledge this dramatic debut. As the Greek Football
Association was only established in 1926, and nowadays Greece being different from the Greece of 1920, they forgot about this match and claim a 1-1 draw against
Bulgaria in 1929 as their debut. But 1920 really did happen….

21-05-1924 Austria - Bulgaria 6-0

Bulgaria in 1924

Apart from
Albania, Bulgaria was the last country of the Balkan region to form a national
team. The conditions were poor; there wasn’t a single grass pitch in the county
until after 1945. Before communism, level of play was far below average. Bulgarians
had other things to do, as the country was known as the powder keg of Europe in
the first quarter of the twentieth century. The Bulgarian FA was founded in
1923, and one year later they travelled to Vienna for their first international
match. They lost 6-0, which wasn’t all that bad, considering that Austria was
one of the leading teams on the European continent at the time.